Ulrich Riek was born in 1964 in the North West Province, after completing two years of national service he completed the Graphic design diploma at Ruth Prowse School of art in Cape Town.In addition to actively sculpting and painting, Ulrich works in the Cape Town Film Industry. Ninety percent of Ulrich's art is created with recycled and found items.

This is a short statement Ulrich made with regards to his mixed media work:

Nature and Technology: The evolution of both, combined, make for interesting visual dynamics.Discarded metals utilized in a graphic representation of an imaginary scenario, and incorporating almost robotic like creatures in three dimensions creates an almost possible situation. Ancient rock becomes modern metal, becomes rusted metal, becomes part of earth again. In such a way nature and technology are invariably the same, cycles repeated.By combining various materials in the creatures sometimes have surprising results. The stories behind each piece evolves whilst each piece is made.